XS650RR
Go'n In Deeper ... Come'n Out Harder
This is an artical that was listed on another site I use. There are an amazing amount of parts in Japan for bikes from the mother country, but it was always a pain in the ass trying to find out how one can get their hands on some of the goodies. So read on my Ton Up Mates:
Buying From Japan
While eBay has become the dominant player in online auction services in the majority of the world, Yahoo Auctions rules supreme in Japan. The selection of NOS and used parts for our bikes is huge, yet the parts remain very difficult to obtain as almost all of the sellers will not ship overseas. This combined with payment difficulties and the language barrier, makes it extremely difficult to purchase items from Japan.
I have a friend in NZ who imports used Japanese cars and parts from Japan and he has been assisting me with picking up items from Yahoo Japan, as well as Japanese parts places and online stores. However, this process has been tedious and expensive. I’ve picked up a couple of items for forum members but doing this is risky for me as I would feel obligated to return the funds if the item were to get lost or damaged. To make it easier for everyone, I’ve spent some time looking for and trying alternative options that we might all be able to use.
I’ve been working closely with an online Yahoo Japan bidding agent and have recently received my second shipment using their services. The company is Rinkya and they can be found at www.rinkya.com. Here’s how it works;
1). You sign up with Rinkya and create an account. The registration process is straightforward, but you will need to provide credit card info. You are required to place a deposit that will determine how much you can bid at any one time. For those of us with PayPal accounts, you can pay for the auctions you win (but not your deposit or shipping charges) with your PayPal account.
2). You find an item you want to bid on using Yahoo’s search function. Rinkya also provides an English search function, but I’ve found it to be a little clumsy. I prefer to muddle my way through Yahoo Japan directly. I’ve added some useful and common F search phrases later in this post.
3). You copy the URL of the item you wish to buy and paste it into your Rinkya account’s ‘place bid’ page along with the amount in Japanese Yen that you wish to bid. Rinkya places a bid on your behalf using their login ID i.e. you do not need a login to Yahoo Japan as Rinkya takes care of all of that for you.
4). If you win, Rinkya emails you the total amount including their commission (they have to make money somehow right?). Charges vary and you can find out more on their website but look to pay $30 to $40US for each item you buy. They waive a good portion of their fees for items under 1000YEN, but it’s rare you can pick anything worthwhile up for that price. You have 24 hours to pay for the item you win.
5). Rinkya staff in Japan pay for the auction and arrange to have the item(s) shipped to their warehouse. Your account will list the items you’ve won, and their status (waiting for payment, paid for, paid for and at Rinkya). Rinkya will hold your items at their warehouse for up to 2 months – this allows you to purchase a number of items and ship them collectively to cut down on shipping costs.
6). You notify Rinkya to ship your items. When you are ready to have your items shipped, you send Rinkya a shipment notice via your account on their website. All of the items currently at their warehouse will be shipped when you notify them to do so – no exceptions. You can choose from a number of shipping methods – I typically select insured sea as this is the cheapest method although it does take 4-6 weeks for items to arrive. A box big enough to easily accommodate a set of bodywork runs around $80US using the insured sea method. You can also select air insured and this takes less than a week – I had a set of CR’s shipped using this method and the cost was also around $80US but the package was small and only contained the carbs and nothing else. If you choose an insured method (sea or air) you are provided with a tracking number. Rinkya will then bill your credit card for the shipping expenses and send you an invoice.
You cannot ship a whole motorcycle, or a complete engine, but heads, wheels, gas tanks, rearsets etc. are no problem.
Some common and useful Yahoo Japan searches:
Search for 750F items, oldest first, gallery view
Search for 900F items, oldest first, gallery view
Search for 1100F items, oldest first, gallery view
Search for 1100R items, oldest first, gallery view
Yoshimura Parts - All
Meters and Gauges - All
Shocks - All
Steering Dampers - All
Remember - with a Rinkya account, if it's listed on Yahoo Japan you can buy it.
When I find an item I like, I usually add it to my favorites in Internet Explorer so that I can keep track of all the items I am watching. Just like eBay, it makes sense to bid your full amount and bid late, but there is NO SNIPING on Yahoo Auctions – if anyone places a bid in the last 10 minutes, the auction extends another 5 minutes – there is no time limit to this automatic extension, and I’ve personally seen auctions extended repeatedly numerous times. There is also no reserve on Yahoo Auctions i.e. the opening bid amount IS the reserve. Some auctions are listed as BIN and these will have the BIN amount highlighted.
What if we all bid on something? Here’s the coolest part of all… let’s say Bulldaug (sorry Charles) and I decide to both bid on a steering damper. I bid $80US and Charles bids $100US. Rinkya places both bids on our behalf using the same ID which means that if my $80US bid is high enough to win, Charles wins but only pays $80US not the $100US he bid. That’s because Rinkya places multiple bids with the same ID and their lowest bid is the winning bid (assuming it wins the auction). It doesn’t matter how many of us bid on the same item, if one of our bids wins, the highest bidding forum member will get the item for the lowest forum members bid amount!
Enjoy!
Buying From Japan
While eBay has become the dominant player in online auction services in the majority of the world, Yahoo Auctions rules supreme in Japan. The selection of NOS and used parts for our bikes is huge, yet the parts remain very difficult to obtain as almost all of the sellers will not ship overseas. This combined with payment difficulties and the language barrier, makes it extremely difficult to purchase items from Japan.
I have a friend in NZ who imports used Japanese cars and parts from Japan and he has been assisting me with picking up items from Yahoo Japan, as well as Japanese parts places and online stores. However, this process has been tedious and expensive. I’ve picked up a couple of items for forum members but doing this is risky for me as I would feel obligated to return the funds if the item were to get lost or damaged. To make it easier for everyone, I’ve spent some time looking for and trying alternative options that we might all be able to use.
I’ve been working closely with an online Yahoo Japan bidding agent and have recently received my second shipment using their services. The company is Rinkya and they can be found at www.rinkya.com. Here’s how it works;
1). You sign up with Rinkya and create an account. The registration process is straightforward, but you will need to provide credit card info. You are required to place a deposit that will determine how much you can bid at any one time. For those of us with PayPal accounts, you can pay for the auctions you win (but not your deposit or shipping charges) with your PayPal account.
2). You find an item you want to bid on using Yahoo’s search function. Rinkya also provides an English search function, but I’ve found it to be a little clumsy. I prefer to muddle my way through Yahoo Japan directly. I’ve added some useful and common F search phrases later in this post.
3). You copy the URL of the item you wish to buy and paste it into your Rinkya account’s ‘place bid’ page along with the amount in Japanese Yen that you wish to bid. Rinkya places a bid on your behalf using their login ID i.e. you do not need a login to Yahoo Japan as Rinkya takes care of all of that for you.
4). If you win, Rinkya emails you the total amount including their commission (they have to make money somehow right?). Charges vary and you can find out more on their website but look to pay $30 to $40US for each item you buy. They waive a good portion of their fees for items under 1000YEN, but it’s rare you can pick anything worthwhile up for that price. You have 24 hours to pay for the item you win.
5). Rinkya staff in Japan pay for the auction and arrange to have the item(s) shipped to their warehouse. Your account will list the items you’ve won, and their status (waiting for payment, paid for, paid for and at Rinkya). Rinkya will hold your items at their warehouse for up to 2 months – this allows you to purchase a number of items and ship them collectively to cut down on shipping costs.
6). You notify Rinkya to ship your items. When you are ready to have your items shipped, you send Rinkya a shipment notice via your account on their website. All of the items currently at their warehouse will be shipped when you notify them to do so – no exceptions. You can choose from a number of shipping methods – I typically select insured sea as this is the cheapest method although it does take 4-6 weeks for items to arrive. A box big enough to easily accommodate a set of bodywork runs around $80US using the insured sea method. You can also select air insured and this takes less than a week – I had a set of CR’s shipped using this method and the cost was also around $80US but the package was small and only contained the carbs and nothing else. If you choose an insured method (sea or air) you are provided with a tracking number. Rinkya will then bill your credit card for the shipping expenses and send you an invoice.
You cannot ship a whole motorcycle, or a complete engine, but heads, wheels, gas tanks, rearsets etc. are no problem.
Some common and useful Yahoo Japan searches:
Search for 750F items, oldest first, gallery view
Search for 900F items, oldest first, gallery view
Search for 1100F items, oldest first, gallery view
Search for 1100R items, oldest first, gallery view
Yoshimura Parts - All
Meters and Gauges - All
Shocks - All
Steering Dampers - All
Remember - with a Rinkya account, if it's listed on Yahoo Japan you can buy it.
When I find an item I like, I usually add it to my favorites in Internet Explorer so that I can keep track of all the items I am watching. Just like eBay, it makes sense to bid your full amount and bid late, but there is NO SNIPING on Yahoo Auctions – if anyone places a bid in the last 10 minutes, the auction extends another 5 minutes – there is no time limit to this automatic extension, and I’ve personally seen auctions extended repeatedly numerous times. There is also no reserve on Yahoo Auctions i.e. the opening bid amount IS the reserve. Some auctions are listed as BIN and these will have the BIN amount highlighted.
What if we all bid on something? Here’s the coolest part of all… let’s say Bulldaug (sorry Charles) and I decide to both bid on a steering damper. I bid $80US and Charles bids $100US. Rinkya places both bids on our behalf using the same ID which means that if my $80US bid is high enough to win, Charles wins but only pays $80US not the $100US he bid. That’s because Rinkya places multiple bids with the same ID and their lowest bid is the winning bid (assuming it wins the auction). It doesn’t matter how many of us bid on the same item, if one of our bids wins, the highest bidding forum member will get the item for the lowest forum members bid amount!
Enjoy!
